Markey and Nelson: No knives on planes, ever again

For months, even years following the September 11th attacks, flying could be an emotional rollercoaster. Those first moments entering the cabin, whether you were a passenger or crew member, were spent surveying the crowd waiting to board. Could someone be a threat? Ordinary Americans became suspicious, and we became a nation gripped by tension in the sky.

By Edward J. Markey and Sara Nelson/Guest columnists

Milford Daily News

By Edward J. Markey and Sara Nelson/Guest columnists

Posted Mar. 31, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Mar 31, 2013 at 4:50 AM

By Edward J. Markey and Sara Nelson/Guest columnists

Posted Mar. 31, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Mar 31, 2013 at 4:50 AM

» Social News

For months, even years following the September 11th attacks, flying could be an emotional rollercoaster. Those first moments entering the cabin, whether you were a passenger or crew member, were spent surveying the crowd waiting to board. Could someone be a threat? Ordinary Americans became suspicious, and we became a nation gripped by tension in the sky.

Almost 12 years have now passed. Memorials and buildings have risen from the scars of that day. Our comfort in the sky has returned, and with it a new, common responsibility to keep everyone who flies safe and secure.

That common bond, that return to normalcy and safety for the flying public and America’s aviation workers is now in danger of being undermined by the very agency created to protect them. That’s because, on April 25th, if the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has its way, small knives will be allowed back into passenger cabins for the first time since terrorists with small knives and boxcutter blades brought airplanes down on that September day.

Workers on the front lines of aviation oppose this wrong-headed policy change. TSA screeners, flight attendants, pilots, air marshals and their unions insist TSA is making a grave mistake. Major airlines also oppose this shift, including American, Delta, US Airways, and United.

TSA’s new policy is based on a “risk-based” approach that makes cold calculations about the reinforced quality of a door, but ignores the vulnerability of human flesh to the point of a knife. Knowing the pilots are safe will be little solace to the flight attendants and passengers left to combat a group of knife-wielding terrorists, as they did on 9/11, or a disturbed or unruly passenger we sometimes experience on flights today.

The new TSA policy is also bound to increase wait times at security checkpoints already facing funding cuts under sequestration. The new policy would only allow small, non-locking, folding knives aboard, leaving TSA screeners with the task of judging which knives are allowed and which are not. TSA screeners have an already difficult job. Permitting some knives of a certain size on planes will cause confusion, slow the screening process, and distract screeners from keeping dangerous items, including both knives and explosives, off aircraft.

Right now, the rule is simple: No knives on airplanes. It should stay that way. Unfortunately, TSA seems unwilling to reverse course. That is why one of us introduced bipartisan legislation that would stop the new TSA rules from going into effect, and the other is marshaling the support of crew and passengers whose security will be directly affected.

Even after a nearly 12 year prohibition, TSA screeners currently confiscate about 2,000 knives from passengers each day. That’s 730,000 knives every year. Consider if all those knives were essentially issued boarding passes onto planes and how many more would be carried on if permitted.

Page 2 of 2 - Just as we must never forget those who were killed on September 11th, we must never forget the lessons we learned. On September 11th, we realized that in the confines of an airplane cabin even a small weapon can lead to deadly consequences. The 9/11 Commission described “failures of imagination” as a primary reason we were unable to prevent those fateful attacks. It does not take much imagination to see how allowing three quarters of a million knives back onto planes is a bad idea.

We should not go back to the days when Americans flew in suspicion of their fellow passengers, wondering if one of them would brandish a weapon that could maim or kill. We should not put in harm’s way our flight attendants and the passengers they help to keep safe. TSA should reverse this policy before it goes into effect on April 25.

U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey is dean of the Mass. House delegation. Sara Nelson is International Vice President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA and is a Boston-based flight attendant.